"Traditional" idolmaster fighting game ideas

[EX_cavate]

As a fan of fighting games and idolmaster, I think it would be fun to come up with ideas for an imas fighting game.

I use the word traditional because the fighting game genre has been altered a bit. (In my opinion)
I share this opinion with AvoidingThePuddle's Aris and I highly agree with it.
If I remember this information correctly, a traditional fighting game is a game with two fighters, two health bars, and the only way to win is to get the opponent's health to zero or have more heath than your opponent after the timer is up. Things like meter, tag/assist, burst, and other mechanics are nice additions to a "traditional" fighting game.
If my definition isn't clear, games like street fighter, tekken, mortal kombat and king of fighters are traditional and games like smash bros and (most?) all wwe fighting games.
Why are games like smash & wwe games non-traditional? Because victory is achieved in another way than knockout and a victory can happen at any given moment. (Smash having percentage mechanic and anyone can fall out or be knocked out of the stage having anywhere between 0% - 999%. WWE is debatable because you can knock out your opponent in most games but there is no health bar and the standard way to win is through pin or submission.)

I took a few ideas from someone creating a similar post on a idolmaster fans group page on facebook. Without further ado, here are some of my ideas for the playable characters and some fighting styles.

765pro allstars should be playable characters with a good amount of hand picked characters from CG and ML. The roster should hit mid-high 30's and probably shouldn't break 45 playable characters in my opinion. (Why? Because i've heard that too many characters = too many matchups to figure out and that demotivates players in a way.)

I will talk about mechanics but I will add that later. (As a side note, someone made Haruka in MUGEN and everything about her was done very well. If I remember correctly, when you have a full voltage meter and you use your burst, you are invincible until the burst is over. In my opinion, that's insanely broken to have in a fighting game.)

Alright, characters. I don't have a lot of detailed ideas but here they are, nonetheless.

I can imagine Yukiho wielding a shovel and being a defensive character with lower than average health but with tools to keep her opponent at a distance through far reaching normals and special moves. Also, I think it would be neat if she can place traps in the ground (similar to Naoto in P4A) to further establish her defensive playstyle.

Azusa would be the standard grappler type character (above average health, very dangerous when character is close, high damage output with command grabs) due to her slow-paced nature and her ability to joint lock people.

I can see Makoto as a heavy rushdown/mixup character with an above average walk speed, quick but average length normals with a unique counter system.

It would be interesting and funny to see ML Noriko having a similar moveset of Paul Phoenix from Tekken because of this.

Also, Haruka should be the "Ryu" type character but I will explain more later because the definition of a "Ryu" type character differs from each game.

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your ideas and opinions on how a dream game like this would look and how it would play similar to other fighting games!

[MetalPredat0r]

I always imagined Noriko being the grappler, since she is a fan of Professional Wrestling.

Haruka as the Ryu-type character is a given since main characters in fighters are usually like that.

I always imagined Chihaya being a sword wielder, similar to Yu Narukami in P4A/P4AU. She could excel more at speed and combos, but her health could be slightly below average. More of a fragile speedster character.

For some reason, I always imagined Miki to be another wrestling-type character, but not necessarily a full-on grappler. Kinda like Rainbow Mika in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

Shiho could definitely be a gunslinging character who excels at long-ranged projectile attacks with bullets, grenades, and other zoning tactics.

I'll try and bring in more potential ideas as time goes by.

EDIT: As for implementing Voltage, perhaps it can work similar to Overdrives in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma. Burst Appeals can power up the user, but it won't be broken, just a temporary boost.

If we're talking roster, the main 765 idols, Jupiter, and Dearly Stars seem like shoe-ins. As for CG/ML: NG and ML trio are obvious, Noriko is a definite yes because wrestling, have other top-tier characters such as Shiho, Serika, Mika, and Kaede. I was thinking that SideM has a few great candidates, especially the members of the unit THE Kogadou, Takeru, Michiru, and Ren, as two of them, Takeru and Ren, specialize in fighting styles, boxing and martial arts respectively, and I heard that Michiru did Judo, but I need a fact check on that.

Takane could be the illusions character. Kinda like Chizuru Kagura from The King of Fighters. Being able to create doubles and overall screw aeround with the opponent's mind.

Iori could have a rapier style to her kinda like Raphael in Soul Calibur. Only possible issue is being similar to Kotoha, who would obviously use fencing.

Yayoi is possibly one of the most difficult characters to make into a fighter, so I'm gonna need help in that aspect.

I imagined Serika could collaborate with her dog, Junior, similar to Ken Amada and Kuromaru in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.

As for overall system, I was thinking primarily 1v1, but there can definitely be team-based modes as well to fit into the unity stuff that iM@S is known for.

As for story........ I'd rather not have one. Interactions and character endings, yes, but I'd rather there not be an overarching plot since fighting games and plot tend to not mesh well together, although there are exceptions such as Mortal Kombat and Injustice.

Sorry for the lengthy post. If anybody mentions ideas for an iM@S fighter, I go absolutely crazy about this because I want it so bad.

[Cael K.]

... Sure, I'll bite. A long time ago, I started thinking to myself what a Cinderella Girls fighter would play like, probably 'cause I saw those fake screens and wished they were real. Now, there will never be a Cinderella Girls fighting game with all the characters in it, but eh.

Five idol teams. You choose leader, two tag partners, and two assist partners.
In general terms, Cute idols tend to be better defensively, Cool idols tend to hit harder, and Passion idols tend to have a little more attack variety or better frames.

Buttons
Light/Medium/Heavy (L/M/H) - Basic attack buttons. I'll use A to denote any attack button.
Style (S) - Cute idols get a parry/shield, Cool idols get focus attack. Passion... maybe a roll or an overhead?
Partner (P1/P2) - Two partner buttons. Partners have P4U-style life and assist breaks. I'll use P for any partner button.

Assist Attacks - P. If the game gives assist characters two moves, then 4P is the second.
Hard Tag - Hold P (MvC3-style tag), brings in a tag character and the point character tags out. If assist characters don't have two moves, maybe 4P instead.
Throws - A+S.
Pushblock - Hold two attack buttons while blocking.
Supers - Single motion and two attack buttons (like 236A+A).

Snapback - 22P. Ejects the opponent's point character, forces one of his tag characters (you choose by pressing P1 or P2) to come out. Probably should burn a meter.
Tag Combo - 236P, ground or air. Burns meter to safe tag in the middle of a combo.
Tag Counter - 6P during blockstun. Burns meter, tags with a special attack.

Tag Super - (motion) A+P. New partner tags in and supers, takes one bar. You can cancel these into a Tag Super or an Assist Super.
Assist Super - (motion) S+P. Point character freezes while assist super is thrown out, but you can cancel this into your own super (if you haven't used one yet), a Tag Super, or an Assist Super. Takes one bar.
With full meter, you can cancel all five characters' supers into each other.

Burst - A+S+P when getting hit. You lose an assist permanently (you choose which one by the button you press) whenever you burst.
Overdrive - A+S+P when not getting hit, burns an assist permanently. Gives a bit of health regen for all members and some attack buffs, plus some effect from the leader, plus some effect from the assist you burned (which stacks with the leader effect). Cute idols give better health regen, cool idols get better damage, passion idols give meter regen.
Can be used as a comeback mechanic, getting better as you lose tag characters, but it shouldn't ever be like MvC3 X-Factor stupidity.

Combos - I don't like it when people get stuck for five or six seconds inside meterless combos, and I don't like games where you have to have the dexterity of Lupin the Third to do anything competitive.
Sooo... basic hits might be a little more heavy, and the damage scaling a little harsh - basic combos should still do good damage. There might have to be something to keep assists from being too good for combo extension.

Partners and the P button - Your assist characters always stay on the buttons they start on (the P1 assist will always be on that button, and the same for the P2 assist).
Tag characters are swapped in and out, but we can keep it simple. P1 will always have the tag character that started on that button, unless she's on point - then the leader will be on that button. Same for P2.

[EX_cavate]

These are great ideas! Thanks for adding on!

I honestly didn't go into deep thought on Norikos playstyle and I just based it off her Paul Phoenix card.

Crap. I completely forgot about SideM. It would be odd if Takeru and Ren weren't included in a fighting game.

I really like your idea for Takane having a moveset like Chizuru! I can imagine Takane having the same stance too...

I agree and i'm stuck as well with figuring out a playstyle for Yayoi.

I was thinking that Hibiki will play similar to your idea for Serika but I think the only "clone" characters in the game should be the Futami twins. But I can see Hibiki having a similar playstyle to MVC2 Jill.

For the system, in my opinion, if the games main way to play is 1v1, it would be odd considering what kind of game imas really is along with a roster that hits high 30s low/mid 40s. A 3v3 system sounds very reasonable but I think it would be more interesting to see if you are given the option between going solo, tag or trio, like Skullgirls does.

I agree with you on the story but even with that being said, I would still like to see one. If they do it correctly, like Mortal Kombat, Injustice or P4AU, I think the story of the game can be really interesting. But if not, it turns into a huge mess and no one really knows whose ending is the true ending.

I know how you feel, Hopefully this dream of ours can become a reality soon!

[Accoun]

I can imagine for example Yukiho or Eri being characters based on counters/reversals, like Aoi from Virtua Fighter

[MetalPredat0r]

Happy to help. I got some more ideas.

I think a final character roster could look like this:

Haruka, Chihaya, Miki, Yukiho, Yayoi, Ritsuko, Azusa, Iori, Makoto, Ami, Mami, Hibiki, Takane, Ai, Eri, Ryo, Touma, Hokuto, Shouta, Uzuki, Rin, Mio, Ranko, Anzu/Kirari, Kaede, Mika, Minami, Mirai, Shizuka, Tsubasa, Serika, Nao, Kana, Shiho, Noriko, Teru, Kaoru, Tsubasa, Takeru, Ren, Pierre, Leon, Kuroi.

The roster is based on popularity, significance, or gameplay potential. Leon as a sub-boss, Kuroi as the final boss.

One small mechanic could be neutral combos by pressing A three times, although some characters will have a neutral infinite, kinda like Fox in Smash Bros. or E. Honda's Hundred Hand Slap, and if you let go, the infinitie will transition into a finisher. A good example could be Takeru having a multi-punch combo and go all JoJo with an ORAORAORAORAORA!

Pierre could be the oddball character with cartoonish abilities involving frogs.

This one seems a bit out there, but maybe have assist characters, like characters that are only used as assists, like Strikers in KOF. As in, you can summon NPCs to help you out in battle. Though that seems a bit much to implement.

... Sure, I'll bite. A long time ago, I started thinking to myself what a Cinderella Girls fighter would play like, probably 'cause I saw those fake screens and wished they were real. Now, there will never be a Cinderella Girls fighting game with all the characters in it, but eh.

A Cinderella Girls fighting game that plays similar to Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 would be great! Maybe for combos, there can be like a combo breaker system like in Killer Instinct on Xbox One, where if you read the next attack of your opponent properly, you can break the combo, but if your opponent reads your breaker, they can counter that breaker and keep going. However, if one of these two screw up, they will not be able to do anything while being comboed or their combo will immediately end.

I can imagine for example Yukiho or Eri being characters based on counters/reversals, like Aoi from Virtua Fighter

I see that for Yukiho moreso than Eri, tbh. I expect Eri to be one huge reference to fighting games, given her nerdy attitude.